Prof. Geoffrey A. Hoffman, May 9, 2017 - "The anti-sanctuary cities and campuses bill, SB-4, was signed into law on May 7, 2017. Most importantly, state laws are subject to federal preemption especially where there is a pre-existing structure in place for providing enforcement of federal laws by...

Jackie Wang, Texas Tribune, May 9, 2017 - " Senate Bill 4 has drawn its first lawsuit.
The League of United Latin American Citizens, Maverick County and the city of El Cenizo sued the state of Texas on Monday, c laiming that SB 4 has failed to properly define a “sanctuary city,” and...

Jason Buch, San Antonio Express-News, May 14, 2017 - "When Gov. Greg Abbott this month signed a bill banning so-called sanctuary cities in Texas, he said the “key policies” in the bill have “already been tested at the United States Supreme Court, and approved there.”
Abbott...

Every year around this time I remind readers: "In 1997, U.S. Marines patrolling the Texas-Mexican border as part of the war on drugs shot and killed Esequiel Hernández, Jr. Mistaken for a drug runner, the 18 year old was, in fact, a U.S. citizen tending his family's goats with a .22 rifle...

Muzaffar Chishti, Sarah Pierce, and Sela Cowger, MPI, May 25, 2017 - "Texas has enacted a new hardline law to crack down on illegal immigration, signaling the re-emergence of restrictionist activism at the state level that stalled in 2012 amid adverse rulings by federal courts. The Texas law, which...

MALDEF, June 1, 2017 - "The City of San Antonio and three non-profit organizations are asking a federal court to block Texas from implementing Senate Bill 4 (SB 4), arguing that the controversial law is unconstitutional, according to a lawsuit filed this afternoon.
MALDEF (Mexican American Legal...

Meredith Hoffman, Associated Press, May 31, 2017 - "Afghan asylum seeker Samira Hakimi and her family members — three of them young children — have spent six months inside a Texas immigration lockdown, even though state lawmakers adjourned this week without passing legislation to circumvent...

Julian Aguilar, Texas Tribune, June 7, 2017 - "A 15,000-member association of attorneys and law professors said on Wednesday that it is relocating its 2018 convention out of Texas in response to the state legislature passing Senate Bill 4, a sweeping and controversial immigration enforcement measure...

Julian Aguilar, Texas Tribune, June 7, 2017 - "The city of Dallas is entering into the battle to stop the state’s immigration law, Senate Bill 4, from going into effect.
"The bill is unconstitutional and would infringe upon the city's ability to protect public safety," Mayor...

Jason Buch, San Antonio Express-News, June 8, 2017 - "The same San Antonio federal judge who will hear the lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the state’s new “sanctuary cities” law ruled earlier this week in a separate case that the Bexar County sheriff violated the...

Melissa del Bosque, Texas Observer, July 14, 2017 - "For at least six months, private contractors and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials have been quietly preparing to build the first piece of President Trump’s border wall through the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge in South Texas...

Juan Castillo, Austin American-Statesman, July 28, 2017 - "Jammed into the back of a locked, pitch-black moving furnace without water or food, eight immigrants began a journey to what they thought would be a better life in America. Instead, inside that hellish trap they drew their final breaths...

MALDEF, July 28, 2017 - "A threat by the State of Texas to amend a lawsuit to include a belated challenge to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative should be thrown out on the grounds that the original lawsuit is not related to DACA, according to a motion filed in federal court...

ICE, July 31, 2017 - "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) formally announced the signing of 18 new 287(g) agreements throughout the state of Texas at an event in Grapevine today attended by Acting ICE Director Tom Homan and sheriffs from each of the 18 counties.
The 287(g) program...

Hispanic National Bar Association, Aug. 10, 2017 - "The Hispanic National Bar Association announced today that it is pulling its 2020 Corporate Counsel Conference from El Paso, Texas in response to the Texas state government’s passage of Senate Bill 4 (“SB4”). Dubbed an “anti...

GEO Group v. Hegar, Aug. 10, 2017 - "The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) sued Glenn Hegar, Comptroller of Public Accounts of the State of Texas, and Ken Paxton, Attorney General of the State of Texas, (collectively, the Comptroller) seeking a refund of sales tax imposed on GEO’s use of gas and electricity...

Richard Gonzales, NPR, Aug. 30, 2017 - "Chief U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled late Wednesday that Texas officials may not implement Senate Bill 4, a controversial measure designed to crack down on so-called "sanctuary cities" in that state.
The law, set to go into effect on...

Julia Horowitz, CNN Money, Sept. 1, 2017 - "Nancy Ramos owns her own business in Fort Worth, Texas. North Texas Hydromulch & Landscape Services has about 10 employees. Ramos, who has run the firm for a year and a half, says it made about $1 million in revenue in its first eight months. That's...

City of El Cenizo v. Texas, Sept. 25, 2017 - "As our description of the motion indicates, a stay during the period in which this case is pending is all we consider in this ruling. The merits of the district court’s order are for a different day and a different panel of this court. We further...

Houston superstar (and former AILA President) Peter Williamson shared this recent unpublished BIA victory . "[W]e conclude that the 2013 conviction for simple assault is not categorically a CIMT and the DHS has not established removability based on two CIMTs. Therefore, termination was proper."